The Interview June 1 2030
by Thunderclap
Summary: We know the story of Offred the handmaid in Gilead. Through her we know what Gilead was like. But what of the rest of America? Other Digital archeologists discovered Journalist Chloe of CBC's 'The Fifth Estate' transcript of her meeting with General Cobb of the Republic of Texas. Its a thought provoking look into why we didn't fall into nuclear fire. (hulu not book)


Austere barely described the room as she walked in followed by her camera man. Gray cinder block, concrete floor and white LED lighting from ceiling mounts seemed to be all that greeted them. Except the table and chairs. Plush velour chairs looking far older and totally out of place stood welcome. Beside them a long thick oaken table, ornately carved with fleur de leas and other French décollage. A stack of newspapers and two thick stacks of printouts rested on top alone.

Looking around the room, she saw the General wearing his dress blues, slightly hunched over a tablet. It seemed like last decade hadn't happened. How wrong they were.

"General Cobb?" She spoke softly, as she moved out of the doorway for the camera man to come in and set up.

He looked up and smiled at her, his teeth white and his smile sharp, even if his cheeks seemed sallow and pocked with age. Blue eyes stared back as he motioned to one of the two chairs facing each other. "Welcome. The newspapers and paperwork are yours. They should verify everything."

"My team will go over them. Any streams, videos or pictures?"

He pursed his dark tan lips. "I'll release them in time. Gilead doesn't find the newspapers threatening. Streams and videos very much." He brushed his deep blue jacket, straightening the ribbons on his left lapel. Removing his wheel cap, he rested in on the table. Cropped grey hair flattop spoke to past causing the cameraman to sigh. His own salt and pepper hair seems unbound on his own round head. He finished positioning the camera as she sat.

"One question to you before we begin. "Did you enjoy your stay?"

She snorted, rubbed her mouth, then brushed her own tawny hair. "Yes. I wasn't expecting much, due to the détente. Gilead says little about Texas or the West."

He grimaced. She sighed, blowing out a breath. "Honestly? Yes. I expected a poverty strewn, war torn area like Aleppo, before the fall of ISIS. This looks more like Shreveport post Katrina. Heartache and struggle mixed with hope. The hotel was comfortable. Internet was up. There were eggs, bacon and coffee. It's another reason why I stayed ever after the delays. Too many unanswered questions."

General Cobb smiled as he sat. "My staff took you to a normal restaurant and didn't tell them who you were?"

"No. We were treated like everyone else. It was eerie, the waitress serving coffee, the menu, the sports News on the TV. It felt like the US. That's gone, isn't it?"

General Cobb's thin lips flattened. "That depends on Gilead and how much destruction was wrought. I'm ready if you are."

She looked to the cameraman, who leaned out and nodded. The red light snapped on. His hand counted down to 0 and pointed.

"Hello and welcome back to 'The Fifth Estate'. This is part two of our series on 'America: 10yrs after the fall'. With me is General Robert Cobb, Commander of the Republic of Texas Air Force Global Strike Command. Greetings, General."

"Greetings, Chloe."

"As a recap, in part one we talked to President Newsom of the Republic of California about the difficulties of the new nation, the relationship between the current US and Texas and how its managing the Seal Beach Quake which devastated the southern half of California state..

Today we will be answering questions as to how we got here. Three nations inside the former Continental United States and why Gilead can't move further than the former mid-Atlantic states."

General Cobb nodded, his expression grim yet resolute.

"General Cobb, when did you first discover the 'Sons of Jacob'?"

"Two years before the fall of Congress."

"Can you explain who they are, and how they tie to Gilead?"

"Yes. The Sons of Jacob are what the terrorists called themselves before the assassinations and the forming of the new government in Washington city."

"Not Washington DC?"

"DC stands for District of Columbia, the final state of the union prior to the attacks. It no longer exists." He grimaced at that briefly before his expression switched back to resolute.

"You called them terrorists. They refer to themselves as restorers of the old order. Resetting the ways and returning to females' respect for their biological imperative." She bristled at the statement. "What is the formal opinion of the republic?"

He flashed a smirk. "Formal opinion? President Abbot last week in Austin answered this question for Al Jazeera. 'They are bigoted, xenophobic, homophobic, isolationist and corrupt. Their idea of what America was being so completely out of kilter with modern multicultural America and the secular character that it had,' he said. 'They believe that most of the modern world is morally decrepit and degenerate, whether it's abortion or gay marriage or even just trying to form any kind of relationship with Catholics; they find these things very difficult. Just look at the destruction of the Catholics churches across the occupied states to see examples of that."

"So how did the Republic stop them?"

"We didn't." He said matter of factly.

"I don't understand." A puzzled look splashed across her face.

"The republic of Texas didn't stop Gilead from overtaking the occupied states." He repeated with the same expression.

"So then how did events leading to three nations and this open war begin?" Her soft face crinkled around her button nose as she asked.

"I was contacted by a friend in the NSA who in his off hours habitually read 4chan's pol board. He flagged me some posts that he found odd about a group of men who claimed to support cleaning up America by removing the homosexuals and diminishing females' rights.

I looked at the posts and found then odd also. They weren't rants, so I decided to check to see if we on base had a group similar, as the poster claims there were groups all over America working in concert."

"Commander Price of Gilead said there were in 30 states at the time of the attacks," she commented.

"That is correct. The West Coast and Gulf states had none."

"So, what happened to the Sons of Jacob on Barksdale?"

"Nothing at first. I monitored them so I could find who they were communicating with. They were meeting face to face in secret, so I authorized the MPs to bug their meeting room with cameras. Once I got enough footage, I either uncontested discharged them or transferred them so they could get court martialed elsewhere."

She frowned. General Cobb frowned back. "Uniform code of Military justice allows us to prosecute for many things including what they were saying, however early exposure would simply include us as targets so this was the best option.

Showing the tapes to Major General Braère and Col. Neumann of the 8th and 2nd Bomb wing respectively, we joined together to craft a solution to keep them off the base."

"Major General Braère was the Joint Functional Component Commander for Global Strike, U.S. Strategic Command, at Offutt Air Force Base." She smiled into the camera.

"Yes, in Nebraska. Col Neumann was responsible for the Combat Ready B-52s. Together, we decided to form a contingency plan in case the Sons of Jacob succeeded."

"So, you didn't think the NSA would capture the terrorists?"

"No. Its midway through Trump's term in office and basically everyone has been replaced with an outsider or apolitical type. Trust in the media is low. Trust in intelligence is all time low. It was the perfect storm and we knew it. We looped in General Goldwin and Secretary Disrow and finally SecDef Mattis. After reviewing the tapes, they agreed with our contingency plan."

"So, President Trump's Defense Secretary Mattis knew of this and approved?" Disbelief shrouded her face.

"Yes. He was the 11th Commander of United States Central Command prior to the appointment and a trusted person. I personally met with him and we agreed that while this might not happen, prudence allowed for preparation."

"So how did this lead to the republic forming?" She asked again, her face unsure but curious.

"The Generals and I approached Governor Abbot and showed him the tapes. After a short discussion, he agreed that if a decapitation strike happened, his state needed to be prepared to stand on its own. We gave him a copy of the tapes and kept in touch."

"The attacks were a decapitation strike?"

"Not in the traditional sense but yes." He reached for a bottle of water a soldier placed on the table before him. Drinking it, he lifted the empty bottle. "This exists now because of that contingency plan. Gilead nor California have these."

She nodded. "I understand, that Gilead claims they don't make them because they pollute the environment as does California."

He stifled a chuckle. "Gilead barely has enough oil to heat and power itself, let alone make plastic. California has no plants because they refused to build them. They trade with us for them."

"So, about the contingency plan?"

"Governor Abbot reached out to Oklahoma Governor Fallon, Louisiana Governor Edwards and Arkansas Governor Hutchinson. They agreed that if said strike were to happen that they would unite together. At this point, there was 18 months left before the attacks."

"What happened next?" She asked concern shining in her eyes.

"We waited and prepared. The Texas Bullion Repository moved the $648 million in gold from New York City to Austin. Offutt and the other bases in the GSC were purged of Sons of Jacob. Laws in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana were tweaked. Food stores were increased. Texas allowed Hollywood to build a fake city in the western part of the state to shot a superhero series.

"Governor Abbott talked to Governor Berry of New Mexico and Governor Brown of California. New Orleans finished Corp of Engineers Levee upgrades. SecDef Mattis looped in Secretary Kelly of Homeland Security and used the Fusion centers to help listen. SecDef Mattis also authorized a temporary HQ for NOAA at Naval Air Base Corpus Christi." He paused, stoic.

She sighed, disappointed. "So, we all know that shortly after the truck bombs that destroyed both the Hart and Russell Senate Buildings followed by the blast five minutes later that destroyed the Rayburn building, President West declared Martial law. This lead to California secession, along with Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Arizona. Why did the Republic stay?"

"President Brown jumped the gun. The expectation was to wait until the second attack, if there was one. The NSA chatter I received said there almost wasn't one because the whole purpose of the attacks was to 'save America from itself'. It also caused them to attract more attention than they needed which helped the Republic in convincing companies like UPS, Target, Comcast, Purina and Dunkin Donuts to move their HQ here without attracting too much attention."

"How many companies actually moved their corporate headquarters from occupied states to the Republic?" She asked curiously.

"67. UPS was the largest. Target's entire executive management came to Houston to look at their new pilot store was the excuse I believe they gave. Since there was one in Houston, this was accepted. Goodyear also went there. White Castle also choose to visit during the 3 weeks."

"I remember the mood of America seemed to horror and working together. Did this help or hurt the contingency?"

"It helped. Once California jumped the gun, Governor Abbot allowed the state congress and city mayors to view the video via secure channel. My NSA contact said that this is when the Sons of Jacob realized they were known. It didn't affect their timetable and they didn't talk about it either. We believe this is why they stormed the White House and Supreme Court chambers simultaneously."

"Vice President Tim Scott was elsewhere?"

"Yes, He was meeting with Governor Mallott of Alaska. I don't know why."

"It was also understood that the senators for Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana were at home during the attacks. Why?"

"From what I understood, they were asked by their governors to return briefly the day prior to the attacks, to insure they wouldn't be caught if the attack succeeded."

"Capitol Police were aware of the attack?"

"Yes, they anticipated an attack on the Capitol itself. They didn't expect the senate or House buildings where the offices were to be stuck with dirty bombs."

"I have a report of a refugee who worked for President West's chief of staff that one of the terrorists tried to use the briefcase to launch missiles." She smiled, holding up a sheaf of papers and a White House security badge. "Is this true?"

General Cobb grimaced, then looked away from the camera briefly. "Yes. That is the moment the war began." Pursing his lips and sighing, he continued. "West had yet to convince a National security council meeting as we were only a few days into his administration. People were still being confirmed. Suddenly no one could be. So, one of SecDef Mattis's last actions in agreement with Secretary Kelly, Joint Chief General Dunsford, General Braère, myself and Col. Neumann was to deactivate the football."

"The briefcase that could launch a mobile strike?"

"Yes."

"So, what happened to Fort Meade, Norfolk, Pierre and Chicago?"

He grimaced again. Staring at her hard, he softened and sighed. "None of us anticipated that the terrorists could get into the bunker and use the command codes there to launch a strike at us or California. Since Governor Abbot hadn't formally declared independence, they targeted the west coast. We in concert with NORAD managed to knock down all of them. However, one of our commanders here who I won't name, sent a command to the nuclear subs that Washington had fallen and that Fort Meade was compromised.

This person also altered the trajectories of several others."

"So, Fort Meade was destroyed by a submarine?"

"Yes. Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine, the USS Colorado. They also destroyed the USS Montana which fired on Norfolk, Patoka and Los Angeles."

"You struck down those?"

"We missed Norfolk. Our missile impacted in Langley, setting fire to the city. The EMP from Norfolk blew out the electronics so first responders couldn't protect the city. Most of Virginia went down. The Patoka one we managed to alter the trajectory but we only clipped the nuke so rather than detonating it crashed off into Chicago harbor, irradiating the city. Los Angeles was shot down by a Chinese Missile."

He paused. Stared at her horror and then smiled. "Former Secretary Tillerson was at NATO HQ asking for Article 5 to be invoked to help overthrown the terrorists while we were doing this. They agreed just as we managed to disable the launch capacity of the bunker."

"What about the skirmishes in the Appalachians, in Florida and Illinois?"

"President Abbot didn't have the means to overthrow them. We can hold the line at the border of Mississippi and Missouri, but can't take more land without help. The UN won't help us take it. They will prevent advance into our borders only."

"What exactly is the borders of the Republic of Texas." She smiled again.

"Rio Grande to the Rockies to the west per our Agreement with the Republic of California. Oklahoma and Arkansas borders including the Missouri hook to the north Mississippi to the east following the border of Louisiana. We however defend Memphis, Biloxi, Mobile and Pensacola. Gilead controls the east of Florida and the Atlantic coast. We have the Gulf Coast side. There is constant battles in Florida around Tampa and Orlando. Miami has been abandoned for Puerto Rico and Cuba. The Keys are effectively empty save the base there. The Coast Guard is now based in Corpus Christi. Mobile replaced Norfolk."

"Ok, so can you explain the odd reports like the USS constitution in Galveston bay, or the fact that the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian were empty. Also, the fact that the National Mall and the monuments there seen untouchable."

General Cobb seemed taken aback. Pausing, he stared at the wall above her before answering. "USS Constitution got wind of the attacks because they overheard someone mention it at a bar in Charleston where they were finishing restoring it. Commander Gerosa, in agreement with his crew, opted to sail her to Galveston instead of Boston. We would have lost her if she had made the journey there."

She nodded, surprised by the response. He continued. "As for the Library, it was the contingency plan in action. LOC claimed they were renovating the building and the books were shipped to Austin warehouse in masse, with everyone's expectation they would return. Currently, those books reside in the University of Texas Library system and can be shared digitally through the Republic."

"And the monuments of Washington?"

"I don't know. I heard the rumors myself of the strike forces there. The fact that the National Cathedral remains I didn't think nothing of. Washington is always filled with surprises designed to protect itself. Like the Dupont Tunnels or Greenbriar or the Cloakroom, it was always something."

"So, the Republic wasn't involved in activating forcefields around the monuments themselves?'

He laughed a short bark before wiping his face clean of it. "This isn't a super hero universe. Yes, Black projects existed. Was I personally aware of any that would prevent attacks? No. So, No the Republic wasn't involved. If such thing existed, it wasn't us."

"Anything else you want to share about how different the Republic is or what was saved that people might think is lost?"

General Cobb chuckled. "One of our battles in Orlando led our troops to bunk down in Walt Disney world. We were able to rescue and restore the Hall of Presidents to Austin. We even found a working Hillary Clinton that one of the troops took as a mascot to remind them what we were fighting for. So, all 46 presidents are included in the new museum."

He paused, thoughtful. "Taylor Swift despite reports of being captured, wasn't. She lives in Exuma currently. Rachel Maddow was captured and killed. We found her corpse in the siege of Atlanta."

"What about the children of Ham purges and National homeland one?"

"You would know more than I on that as I believe Gilead claims it's North Dakota? It's not. They simply dumped the men near Chicago. Some have migrated to North Dakota. Others come to us."

"Finally, about the sterility problem has the republic addressed it?"

"Yes, President Abbot talked about it last week. LSU and Baylor together have discovered a way to restore proper function to men removing the sterility epidemic that plagued us. As for the Commanders of Gilead, it is believed by the scientists that sterility among them may have been the result of an earlier gene-splicing experiment with mumps that produced a virus intended for insertion into the supply of caviar used by top officials in Moscow. Also, the genetically engineered wheat and soy helped. That's certainly is no longer a problem."

"Why, General?" She responded quizzically."

"During the attack on the White House and Supreme Court an attack on Monsanto also happened. The facilities were hit with truck bombs as well and the remaining scientists slaughtered by shock troops who are loyal to no one but themselves. This is a consistent problem in the nonaligned states. If we or Gilead aren't there to enforce the law, then roving gangs do sometimes. You are fully aware that this resulted in Detroit declaring itself a part of Ontario."

She nodded. "Yes, but we contacted the Governor of Michigan first."

"Then there was smoke from the burning, right?"

"Yes, the fires. We managed to save most of the city."

"Thank you for your time, General." She turned to face the camera fully. "Thank you all for your time today. We hope this has been an informative half hour. Good bye."

As the Cameraman signaled they were out, she rose and sighed audibly. "I hoped sir, you would be more forthcoming."

He chuckled again. "I told you when you requested the interview, you wouldn't like some of the answers. Especially about the monument fields. NSA mentioned a project and their Utah facility backs it up that there was something designed to protect them in the event of a strike. Nor are we mentioning the fact that we share NORAD with you and California. Or the fact that we occupy the US seat on the security council and the NATO seat. Russia and China both recognized us the day after the attacks. Then they recognized California."

"Is the US coming back?" She asked seriously as the cameraman finished.

"Not like it was. Those flags you have in your embassies and consulates. The one with the empty stars? That country died. When Gilead collapses and its military surrenders, then we can reassemble the states into a nation but the republic of Texas will remain. Good day. Chloe."


End file.
